For the especial benefit of those who erroneously think that the
purpose of giving industrial education is a new thing in our land, as
well as for general historical purposes, I call attention to the
establishment of the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia in
1842. This Institute was founded by the Society of Friends, and was
supported in its early days and presumably still "by bequests and
donations made by members of that Society." The objects of the
Institute as set forth by its founders, fifty-seven years ago, are:
"The education and improvement of colored youth of both sexes, to
qualify them to act as teachers and instructors to their own people,
either in the various branches of school learning or the mechanic
arts and agriculture." Two years later the African Methodists
purchased one hundred and eighty acres of land in eastern Ohio and
established what was called the Union Seminary, on the manual labor
plan. It did not succeed, but it lingered along, keeping alive the
idea, until it was eclipsed by Wilberforce University, into which it
was finally merged.
The anti-slavery fight carried on in the North, into which the colored
men entered and became powerful leaders, aroused the race to a deep
study of the whole subject of liberty and brought them in sympathy
with all people who had either gained or were struggling for their
liberties, and prompted them to investigate all countries offering to
them freedom.
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